Pentagon weighs expanding drone boat fleet after Rio Grande success

The Pentagon is considering expanding its fleet of small, autonomous surveillance boats along the Rio Grande and Gulf of Mexico after a pilot program successfully deterred drug trafficking and illegal border crossings, a US official confirmed. The 11-foot, 340-pound Lightfish vessels, built by startup Seasats and costing about $240,000 each, can operate for months on solar power and feed real-time tracking data to military software. During a typical month, they assisted in 452 detections, 350 apprehensions, and 100 turnbacks of border-crossing attempts. Officials aim to scale the fleet from 10 to 50 craft to reduce pressure on Coast Guard cutters and crewed aircraft. The expansion would proceed incrementally, potentially extending into the Gulf of Mexico to create a virtual radar fence, with the technology also tested in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.